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My Favorite Book Recommendations

I'm going to copyVelox (again) by listing my favorite books and authors I read in 2012. I've read an incredulous amount of books since graduating, compared to how little time I had to read during college overall. It also helps to keep reading, and to have a few different genres worth of favorites in the back of my head, due to my employment at a bookstore.

My top author, if you hadn't guessed, is John Green. I got to meet him at the National Book Festival in DC in September, which was awesome. His books are realistic teen lit, which is a far stray off from my usual sci-fi and fantasy leanings, but each novel is incredible and has shining moments. My top two books are Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars. Crying is expected. I never thought books would make me cry, and then it happened. Good times.

I also enjoyed Every Day by David Levithan, the story of someone who swaps bodies with a different person every day, but must deal with that fact in a whole new way when they fall in love. Well-written and very impressive for Levithan's first solo novel.

I got a blast from the past when I read Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli, a book my teacher recommended to the class back in 7th or 8th grade, but I snuffed it out of mind. But my best friend said it was one of her favorites, so I gave it a shot and found myself unable to put it down, being moved with various feelings, yelling at the main character for his bad decisions and loving Stargirl.

I just recently read Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan, and my praise of this off-beat treasure hunt just enough out of reality for geeks but realistic enough for the everyday reader will make it my go-to book recommendation for anyone.

Finally, the Sandman series by Neil Gaiman has been a work of brilliance, and I can't wait to read more (and finish it in time for the prequel comic's release in November) in 2013.

That's 2012. But let me tell you, my 2013 reading list has about 60 books on it! More about that tomorrow-ish.

I have a friend who practically forced me to purchase and read The Fault In Our Stars by John Green. He's read it about three times in the past couple of months and absolutely adores it. And I can't really blame him. I found the story pretty heartfelt and, while I didn't even tear up, it was pretty depressing. I guess my only criticism of it would be that besides their unfortunate physical condition, those kids are just too darn perfect. It got distracting at times, but I guess it was intentional. They are fictional characters after all.

Several people have recommended John Green to me, but unfortunately I haven't read anything by him yet. Looks like I'll have to. =P I'll look into your other recommendations as well. Sounds like you had a good year.